Analects 14.40: 憲問 (Xian Wen)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 14 tests ethical judgment in public life. Salary, courage, accomplished speech, and a reputation for virtue each prove incomplete measures of a person. The arguments about Guan Zhong ask how benefits to many people should weigh against a demand for personal fidelity. Accounts of officeholders, messengers, and failed appeals make responsibility concrete: competent service can sustain a flawed ruler, and a duty to speak can survive refusal. Short sayings turn from judging others toward learning, ability, and the relation between words and deeds. The later encounters press the choice between persistence and withdrawal when others offer no recognition. The dialogue with Zilu gives self-cultivation an expanding aim, ending in peace for all the people; the closing scenes test conduct through bodily bearing and the desire to seem grown before the work is done.
Analects 14.40
子曰、作者七人矣。
The Master said, “Seven people have acted in this way.”
Commentary
philology Seven people, unnamed 作者 means people who have acted or risen. “In this way” connects their action with the preceding account of withdrawal, as the position of the saying suggests. The sentence gives their number but no names or individual reasons for leaving. The English keeps that uncertainty.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium